Swindon cyclist abandons John O'Groats record attempt

Ian To, 37, a Liddington dad-of-three, had hoped to pedal the 840 miles from Cornwall to the tip of Scotland in under 44 hours.

But a pit stop tumble from the bike, blistering conditions on Saturday and a bout of diarrhoea, pushed his speed down.

Ian's currently making his way up the A6 towards Carlisle. We had lots of roadside support yesterday, who's planning to head out today? #LEJOG #worldrecord #cycling #ultracycling pic.twitter.com/7hi74C6a2k

— Project 44 - LEJOG (@PLejog) May 20, 2018

Team manager Graham Mearns said: “Ian was feeling depleted and there was too much to do. My motto is that going out is optional, coming back is mandatory. The team is fully behind his decision.”

By the time he decided to abandon the attempt, Ian had already pedalled almost 470 miles to Penrith in just over 25 hours at an average speed of 18.3 miles per hour. He had 375 miles left to ride and needed to pedal at an average of 20.5mph to break the record.

Hi everyone, yesterday Ian suffered with heatstroke. He also had a minor crash early on. He's struggled with a bad stomach throughout the night and this morning we've decided, for his safety, to abandon the attempt. We choose to go out but we must come back. More to follow...

— Project 44 - LEJOG (@PLejog) May 20, 2018

We've informed the RRA of our decision and Ian's now resting up and hydrating. Thanks for all your support, it's helped so much to keep everyone motivated. We knew the attempt would be tough and the conditions would need to be perfect. Not this time though 😔

— Project 44 - LEJOG (@PLejog) May 20, 2018